News

Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA)Has appointed David Bell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intersil Corp., to its board of directors. Bell is filling one of the board's semiconductor positions, dedicated to fabless and ......More

Thanks to a recent acquisition, a greater variety of hermetic lids can be made for the semiconductor, microelectromechanical-systems (MEMS), medical, and optical markets. Customers are increasingly looking for complete ......More

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.MORAY RUMNEY, the Lead Technologist specializing in Long Term Evolution (LTE) at Agilent, won the Informa LTE North America 2010 award for individual contribution to LTE development. Rumney's work is centered on ......More

By taking advantage of biosensor and wireless communication technologies, a wireless-transmitter device on infant pajamas provides a biophysical approach to baby monitoring. Soon, parents and caregivers also will be able to obtain such ......More

Due to the economic pressures of the past few years, budgets are still tight in the microwave and RF industry. Many firms continue to put their money toward R&D for highly "safe" (i.e., profitable) markets and take a "wait-and-see" attitude ......More

The Smart Connector, a new sensor device, is installed in the connecting units of coaxial cable assemblies to provide real-time information about primary failure modes in RF cables. In telecommunications systems, connector and equipment ......More

According to a recent analysis by the Population Reference Bureau, the science and engineering (S&E) workforce in the United States appears to have stalled. In 2010, S&E workers accounted for just 4.9% of the total workforcedown from 5.3% in 2000, ......More

Design Features

This analysis of a phase-lock-loop frequency synthesizer highlights the importance of the loop filter in final synthesizer performance, and how to analyze the noise contributions of the synthesizers component parts....More

Engineers involved in design and manufacturing have long sought RF/microwave measurement solutions with greater simplicity, cost effectiveness, speed, and accuracy. High on that list are simple but accurate power measurements. Although RF/microwave ......More

Editorial

Nancy K. Friedrich Editor-in-Chief Counterfeit parts. Factories in poor countries, where wages are minimal and working conditions are terrible. Nefarious customers, who may be working to acquire technology for harmful end goals like ......More

Feedback

In your December 2012 issue, in the story "Transistors Pick Up Speed With GaAs" on page 50, I noticed a major error. Being an antique semiconductor engineer, I must let you know that almost all transistor were made with germaniumsome with germanium as a ......More

Apologies to all of our friends at Mini-Circuits for the omission of the company name from the front cover, as well as from the first figure of the Cover Feature article. Although the company name was not on the front cover, it did appear within the ......More

R&D Roundup

Radar systems and radar-cross-section (RCS) measurements were once associated only with military applications. But the expansion of radar technologies to consumer and commercial applications has created a need for lower-cost RCS measurement approaches to ......More

Terahertz-frequency integrated circuits (ICs) offer tremendous promise in terms of available bandwidth for short-range communications. Although such devices have been fabricated for use at frequencies through 3000 GHz (3 THz), the on-wafer commercial ......More

Application Notes

RF chip inductors are critical to many tuning and filtering circuits. Used in a variety of electronic systems, these essential circuit elements cut or eliminate electromagnetic-interference (EMI) noise on the printed-circuit board (PCB). They provide ......More

The emerging wireless communications standard, Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A), is specified as part of Release 10 of the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP; www.3gpp.org) specifications. Though largely building upon existing LTE ......More

Product Feature

This advanced test system can generate and analyze all of the different signaling conditions experienced by a modern wireless network, aiding the design and evaluation of cellular phones and other wireless devices....More

Products

Model MA24105A from Anritsu Co. is a standalone in-line peak power sensor that provides power measurement capability from 350 MHz to 4 GHz. It has a power range from 2 mW to 150 W and can measure forward and reverse power. The sensor's dual-path ......More

A new three-dimensional-coil, isotropic magnetic antenna has been developed for near-field communications (NFC) at 13.56 MHz. Model 3DC15-HF is a surface-mount antenna formed of nickel-zinc (NiZn) ferrite core material with resistance of greater than 10 ......More

The latest version of the SW1007 electromagnetic-compatibility (EMC) test software is now available free of charge from AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation. The software now features military standard (MIL STD) emissions capabilities, along with its legacy ......More

Model CVCO55CC-3750-3800 is a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) that operates from 3750 to 3800 MHz using control voltages of about 0.5 to 16.0 V. Ideal for applications such as digital radio equipment, fixed wireless access, satellite communications ......More

The AMFG family of gallium-nitride (GaN) power amplifiers from MITEQ now includes the model AMFG-3F-00030300-60-33P-HS-12V with an internal DC/DC converter for simple operation from a 12-V supply.It operates from 30 MHz to 3 GHz with more than 40-dB gain ......More